No one expects challengers in a U.S. presidential race to present realistic economic plans. Promise them anything, their campaign consultants advise. On that score, GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich’s tax reform plan exceeds expectations.

First off, no one would see a tax increase. That’s because taxpayers would have the option of staying with the existing system or opting into Gingrich’s plan.

The respected Tax Policy Center, a collaboration of two Washington think tanks, has done an analysis of Gingrich’s proposed reforms and here is how they shape up.

Low-income households, the bottom 20 percent, would get an average tax cut of $63. The top 0.1 percent of taxpayers, those earning an average of $8 million, would see an average cut of $1.9 million. Households making more than $1 million would see taxes reduced by an average of $607,000.

We can see which voter demographic he’s aiming at.

A household earning between $200,000 and $500,000 would see a tax cut of 27.3 percent while households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would get an average tax cut of 12.1 percent.

There would be a uniform personal deduction for everyone of $12,000.

The Gingrich plan would extend the Bush tax cuts, now set to expire in 2011, or offer an alternative of a flat 15 percent rate regardless of income. While abolishing many deductions and credits, Gingrich would retain deductions for mortgage interest and charitable gifts and tax credits for children and earned income.

The former House speaker would eliminate taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains and cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 12.5 percent.

None of this generosity comes cheap. No amount of budget cutting could make up for the plan’s massive increase in the deficit, $850 billion alone in 2015, the first year the cuts would take full effect.

(By way of comparison, Congress is debating spending $662 billion on defense next year.)

Gingrich’s aides say that some of the estimated $1.3 trillion revenue loss would be made up by the tax cut-inspired increases in economic and job growth. We’ve seen how well that worked under Reagan and the last Bush.

Gingrich’s plan has something for everybody; it’s generous, especially to the very rich; and we have absolutely no way of paying for it.

Editorial by Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service